2. Pupil case study - expressive language difficulties

Name: Luke         Age: 7 years        Setting: Mainstream Primary School Y2

Strengths: 
• good at drawing 
• good at physical activity but not with the rules of games 
• he enjoys TV and playing on the computer 
• his speech is now clear even to the unfamiliar listener 
• follows visual prompts from peers 
• can decode individual written words 
• is able follow spoken instructions

 Areas of need: 
• difficulty sequencing stories and numbers 
• struggles to formulate complete oral sentences 
• unable to use grammar appropriately e.g., verb tenses 
• is very frustrated and sometimes physically lashes out 
• is aware of difficulty 
• struggles to recall specific words 
• unable to write sentences to teacher direction

Impact on learning: 
• unable to access literacy curriculum 
• reluctant to participate in class discussion 
• limited ability to understand narrative - both orally and written 
• all areas of the curriculum affected 
• unable to prove understanding

Impact on social development: 
• unable to join in social conversations in playground

Emotional behaviour: 
• low self-esteem and lack of confidence 
• frustrated with occasional outburst of aggression

Organisational:
• needs additional prompts - visual and practical demonstration

Classroom strategies: 
• introduce visual support to help pupils understand which elements are needed within a sentence - incorporating colour coding 
• provide models of sentences that include identified target 
• use a variety of story plans to support both sentence construction skills and the development of early narrative skills.  
• model sentences and work on key phrases to help express opinions 
• do not correct a child's poor grammar; rather use the correct form when replying. 
• pre-tutor and review key vocabulary - new word targets should be identified which are linked to on-going classroom topics and activities 
• teachers monitoring their own level of language with regard to length, speed and complexity to reinforce simple sentence constructions